Farmington Medical Startup Targets Hearing Loss With New Drugs

Researchers have established a startup business that could restore hearing that people have lost to construction, traffic, jet planes and even rock concerts.

Frequency Therapeutics, based in Farmington and Woburn, Mass., is developing drugs that would activate certain cells, stimulating the regrowth of hair cells in the inner ear to counter "chronic noise-induced hearing loss."

"The evolution of our hearing was not meant to hang out on subway platforms or put on earbuds or go to U2 concerts," said David Lucchino, chief executive officer of Frequency Therapeutics. "There's a disconnect between the evolution of hearing and the industrialized world we live in."

The company is part of the University of Connecticut's business incubation program, which aims to provide support to new business startups, and has received $32 million in financing. It is researching technology to develop a gel that would be injected in the middle ear — between the eardrum and oval window — in a doctor's office procedure of about 30 minutes.

The intent is to recreate sensory hair cells — as many as 15,000 in each ear — that act as antenna in converting sound into signals understood by the brain. Or as Lucchino says, how to "biologically hot-wire the inner ear" to help it regenerate itself.

The human ear is incapable of spontaneously restoring lost or damaged hair cells, making hearing loss permanent.

Jeff Karp, who co-founded Frequency Therapeutics in 2015, said "druggable tissue regeneration" has a broad platform, with hearing loss a first application.

Activating the body's progenitor cells — known as descendants of stem cells that can form one or more kinds of cells in regenerating tissue — also could be applied to treating skin disorders or reversing vision problems. By activating the progenitor cells, Frequency Therapeutics can prod disease modification without the complexity of genetic engineering.

Birds and amphibians, such as frogs, regenerate their hearing, which is critical for their survival. That observation prompted researchers to ask if the same can be done for humans, said Karp, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School's teaching affiliate, Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "We knew the biology existed."

Lucchino said researchers looking to establish companies that will draw investment money consider ways to have the "biggest impact helping people." Finding a successful treatment for hearing loss would benefit a large market: About 36 million people in the U.S. are affected, researchers say.

The World Health Organization estimates that 1.1 billion young people are at risk for hearing loss from recreational noise. About 360 million people worldwide, or 5 percent of the global population, have disabling hearing loss. Of that, 32 million are children.

Hearing loss caused by prolonged exposure to excessive noise can be due to heavy construction or military training, but common loud noises like subways, concerts and the use of headphones can have a significant impact on hearing.

Genetic causes, complications at birth, certain infectious diseases, chronic ear infections, the use of particular drugs, exposure to excessive noise and aging also are blamed for hearing loss, according to the World Health Organization

The next step for Frequency Therapeutics is for researchers to move their work to the clinic, expected in the next year to 18 months, and "show this drug actually works," Lucchino said.

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